Month: July 2012

I inculcated an habit of watching a movie everyday from my engineering life. I had a routine of watching a movie around 11.30 PM – 12 AM at night so that the movie finishes by 2 AM. I would keep another movie to download and sleep. People might wonder why i start seeing movie so late, the reason is BSNL plan :). We had the Homeplan 550 which had a clause where in a user can download unlimited amount of data from 2AM to 7AM in the morning everyday. I continued this habit for the entire 4 years of my engineering life. By doing so, i became an movie bee and always checking sites for latest movies and one which were highest rated. IMDB is also one of the reason behind this habit which would suggest me about the movies. As i was watching movies, the collection of movies were growing up. I started watching different kinds of genre’s such as horror, thriller, psycho, action, comedy etc. I mostly used to see thriller and psycho genre’s movies.

The habit continued even when i was pursued my M.tech at hubli. I now started seeing all kinds of movies and special liking to animation movies grew. I use to download the blue ray copies, full hd movies. As my jiju used to watch movies alot so it became easy for me to collect HD and blue-ray movies. I got placed in Software AG and continued my habit for sometime. I also started seeing TV series of English channels like Prison Break, Big Bang theory etc. ,but later didn’t find enough time for it but still managed to watch few movies a week. But recently, i have started my habit again and watching atleast one movie a day. And if it is Saturday and Sunday’s then the count would be more. There are many movies which are in my all-time favorites list, would let you know about them later.

Looking forward to maintain the habit punctually and cover loads of movies in future.

There is a ritual at our office where in every once an year we conduct “POTLUCK” event. It is something which is been followed from few years few years. I wasn’t aware of such event untill it was announced. After enquiring with senior staff in the office, me and many of my friends got to know what exactly was the event. The event was basically cooking food in office or bringing it from home and selling it to office staff. The amount collected by selling the food items prepared would be given to charity. Its was fun and also had a cause in it. All the people were informed that, the event would be among various teams and whatever amount is collect by the teams would be summed up and the exact amount would be contributed by company and given to a charity. Every team had a specific date to prepare food items and bring it to the office and sell it. The date would be announced soon.

Few days later, we got a mail from our HR Shanthi informing us in which team we are in and date of the eventfor teams. Event was among six teams and i was in TEAM 1 aka WINNING TEAM :). We had 60 people in our team and was scheduled on 23rd July 2012 . I personally wanted to participate in this event and give the best as there was a cause behind it. We needed a team leader for the team and Appu nominated me for it. At first, i was not in favour of it but agreed to it later. We decided to meet and discuss what we can prepare for the event. But many people didn’t turn up for the meeting. I was bit dejected at first but it was just 1st meeting and people tend to ignore it. We planned for another meeting soon and again only few of them were present. It was Appu, Me, Abhishek and Anuj available and we decided few items among ourselves such as Aloo paratha, Samosa Chole, Fruit salad, Mirchi, Bonda etc. Later Anju (one of our team member) informed us of her bringing cake and kheer. Slowly, everthing was falling into place and people were responding to it. We later decided to postpone the event from 23rd July to 25th July 2012 so that team would get more time to prepare.

We were only 6-8 people who were actively participating in the event and didn’t have proper response from all the other team members. So, Abhishek decided to check out the names of the people and pull few of them to participate. And he did convince (or i should say pulled few of them) to participate in the event. We had a group of 15 people now, so we called a final meeting to finalise the food items to be prepared, what are the things required for it, who will be bringing which items etc. Once the meeting got completed, we decided to prepare Aloo paratha, samosa chat, fruit salad with jelly/custard/ice cream, mirchi, onion pakoda, wada, two varities of cake, tilli ladoo, kheer, khakhara and lassi. Every person had a task/job to be done. We were ready for the event and everybody was charged for it.

It was 25th July 2012, Shanthi (HR) made sure everyone knows about the event and sends out a mail to staff. We were ready for the show. We were told to use the cafeteria space for the event. We dedcided to meet around 2.30PM in the afternoon in order to setup, prepare dishes and arrange all the items prior. Everyone was busy in preparing or helping others. Appu was choppping the vegetables with Azhar helping her, Benita was busy preparing batter for mirchi and pakoda, anju and aditi were helping her. Abhishek, Anuj and me were preparing aloo paratha, Anjini and Abhimanyu were preparing lassi, Amit and Ashwini were cutting the fruits, Akshay was getting ready to sell his khakhara’s and Bapi and anuj were not doing anything :). We placed each item for display for the viewers to have a taste of it before they buy. Event started around 3.30PM. We had priced the food items on the higher side in order to contribute more to charity.

Appu n Anuj busy chopping

Azhar helping them

Anju, Aditi and Benita preparing the items

Anuj and Bapi just posing where as Abhishek is the actually prep it

Anjini and Abhimanyu prep lassi

Me Anuj and Akshay just before the start

Items for display

Abhishek busy prep aloo paratha

My Team

My Team

I was with abhishek preparing paratha’s, the first order we got was for the mirchi. Slowly, orders increased and people started taking items but no one had taken paratha. We waited for nearly half an hour for an order. Abhishek used to call people personally and tell them to buy it. We also gave many combo offers to attract more people so that they would more items. It was such a fun seeing that. I and few of my team mates used to have a bite of each item when nobody was watching us. Many people liked almost all the items and appreciated for the good work. Slowly, the crowd was disappearing as time progressed and around 6 in the evening we stopped and most of the items were sold out. Then we all the team members gathered around to taste few items. MIRCHI and ONION PAKODA were flavor of the day. We were very satisfied with all our efforts that we had put in. We collected handsome amount of money for the charity. All in all, it was such a great exprience and fun-filled event. Loved it!

Neha who i consider as my didu, friend and mentor in many ways. She was in kerala attending some international conference with her colleagues. Colleagues were none other than the teachers who taught us in M.Tech. Vijaylakshmi M ma’m (who were my guide in M.tech), Jayalakshmi ma’m and Survarna ma’m were also attending the conference with neha. I was thinking how time has changed. Once upon a time, he/she was a student and now he/she has became teacher in the same college and are siting with our old lecturers. Coming back to what i was saying, neha called me two days prior from kerala and said she isn’t feeling well because of food. And later informed me that, they will be going to hubli via Bengaluru. They would come to Bengaluru on Monday and leave for hubli the same day at night. I promised to pay a visit to her and my lecturers for sure.

I called up neha next day in the afternoon asking about the plans and she informed me to come to railway station directly. I reached railway station around 8.45PM and neha was standing outisde waiting for me. I met her and met Jaylakshmi and Suvarna ma’m. They were very happy to see and same was from my side. We chit chatted for few mins and train started to move. They were very happy that one of their students came to visit them. It really feels special when you meet your lecturers after long time.

One of my bad and good habit is being “lazy”. I consider myself in the category of lazy people and proud to be. Whenever i find time, i just laze around and do nothing. I personally consider Saturday and Sunday as ‘lazy days’. I consider them lazy because they come at the end of the weekend and not at first 🙂 :).

Every Saturday and Sunday are the same for me, only the date changes. I restrict myself from doing limited things on these days such as sleeping, siting, watching movies, walking in the park (very rarely), sometimes just being idle and thinking about myself. These two days are ideally my favorite days of the week. These are the days where in i get time to think about myself and try improving my behavior or character towards life. Most of the times, the routine remains the same and very often it changes.

Every person has his own childhood memories and moments which stays in their mind forever. These are very special and when remembered will always bring an instantaneous smile on anybody’s face. Similar is my case too. There are so many incidents, moments which i rem from my school days that bring smile on my face. I still have pictures of those moments in my mind and smile when i m alone thinking of them.

I had many friends in my school days and still continue to have them. As every person has his/her own best friends, i too had few best friends who are still in contact to me. Few of them are KARTHIK, RAGHUVEER, SHRAVAN, DEEPAK, VIJAY, RAHUL, DHANRAJ etc. There was a gals gang which was headed by FARHEEN BEGUM who was very adamant (most of the times) and soft (very few times) in nature and SHALINI AGARWAL was one of the gal in that group. she was the only gal who was closest to me in my school days. She is and still is my closest friend from schooling (in gals). Shalini and me has this connect from the first and even our fathers know each other as they were from same business background. I have caught up with their family and they were very sweet from the first moment. We were in touch for few years then lost touch.

After few months, i heard from one of my friends that she is getting married and she didn’t even invite one of her best friend. I was very angry on her but later one of my friend made me realize me that best friends should not have ego’s between them. Then one fine day, Khushbu (sister of shalini) showed me the pic of shalini’s daughter and i was so happy for her. Then after few days, we got in touch again. Its always a good feeling seeing how they were in school (idiotic, shying, innocence) and how they are now (matured, responsible etc).

I will pen down all the moments which i remember one by one which will definitely bring smiles on many people especially my school friends.

I usually get attracted by the proverbs and try applying them in my daily life. But never thought that there was actually as a research topic in it. Lately i have realised that, whatever proverbs are written or derived are from self experiences (almost of them).

And i guess,many of the people aren’t aware what i m going to say. Let me ask this, does anyone know what is the study of proverbs known as?

Most of us don’t know it, the answer is ‘Paremiology ‘ which is derived from greek word.

Its always feels nice that we learn something new every day (even if it is in unexpected way) about various things which might start u taking interest in it.

Rajesh Khana aka kaka is no more. Bollywood’s first superstar rested in peace after battling illness from few months. There was hysteria all around in 80’s when he was at peak of his career. I still remember, elder people talking about him, his acting and his style. Gals or women went crazy for him and even married his photo.

I heard few conservation between my father and his friends discussing how mad people had become to see him, to know about him, how he lives etc. The charisma which he portrayed in reel life gave him larger than life in real life. It was like, whatever he touched in the era was turned to gold. There are many songs which are famous then and even now, one of them is “Mere sapno ki rani kab aayigi tu”. People of today’s generation still hummm that song and is remembered. This shows the impact kaka had in the hindi film industry.

I have seen few of his movies and didn’t know about him much at first. As i grew, i got to know the impact he made in hindi film industry. There was one article in one of the newspaper which said something like this “Once a BBC interviewer had interviewed him and said he(kaka) had mixture of Valentino and Napoleon”. This sums up what an great actor he was to hindi film industry.

I always find it boring, uninterested, lethargic, uneventful etc. when we return from a tour or a trip or a picnic with friends or family. Whenever people hear the word ‘Trip/tour/picnic’, their is a instantaneous smile on the face. Same is my case too. I love to travel and explore new places with friends and enjoy to the fullest.

The tend to enjoy the trip (most of them) even if it is for one day. But the problem is, when the trip comes to an end i personally feel dejected. I always feel myself in boring, uninterested state whenever i return from a trip where our mind/heart is still in the dreamy lands of the trips, thinking about it and assuming many other things about the trip. I have been observing this behavior in me from many years but didn’t get any solution to it. I guess, being this way is whats the best to me. I know it somewhere weakens me but as human’s tend to have weaker points, its one of the weak point for me.

Certain people might agree with me regarding the feelings which i experience in my daily life whenever a trip is completed. For all those who have this habit, i would like to say is its good that we tend to be in that state of mind but over a period of time, we need to inculcate the habit of overcoming it and enjoying it more.

I always wanted to go to some hilly area and stay there peacefully for a week or two and do nothing, just chill or watch nature. Many of my friends used to say that MADIKERI is one of the must-see places in karnataka. I used to fantasize how madikeri would look like, how weather would be etc. I always expressed my desire to go to madikeri to many of my friends and told them to plan about it but was always in vain. One way or the other, the trip was cancelled or delayed and i used to get frustated about it. Finally, My wish came true on 14th July 2012.

Whenever i visit hubli for some work, i always used to meet my friend cum didu NEHA and SAMINA. They always took time out of their busy schedule and used to meet me whenever i visit hubli. We used to hang around so much. Once when i visited hubli to meet my sister, Neha and Samina expressed their desire to go for tour for which i ready agreed. We planned for a weekend around June but got cancelled due to personal reasons. Then they decided to go for tour in mid of July as they have holidays. Neha, Samina, Laxmi and I were on the list for the trip to madikeri. We decided that this time we would go for the tour irrespective of who is coming and who is not. After few days, we decided that the date and was fixed on 14th July 2012. We then asked our M.tech friends whether they want to join us in this tour and only Pradeep responded to yes. So the final members for the tour were Neha, Laxmi, Samina, Pradeep and Me. Laxmi, Neha and Samina would be arriving a day prior to the tour. I had already booked a taxi for the tour. We decided to go to madikeri from bengaluru and visit places on the way to madikeri.

Early in the morning around 5.30 AM, the taxi had reached to pradeep and he boarded it. He reached to my room around 6 AM. We called up neha and samina to check they are ready or not but asusual, they weren’t. We reached to their PG around 7 AM but they got out around 8AM :). I expected it to happen so was chilled about the delay. We started from bengaluru and the journey to my much awaited place begun. I was very happy and excited about it. After few minutes of journey, we all had butterflies in our stomach so we planned to stop at some restuarant and KAMAT was the place. At Kamat, we found out that there was a buffer system which costs you Rs. 100 which included Idly, Dosa, Wada, Upma, Jilebi, Chutney, Sambar, Ladoo, Fruit salad,Juice, Tea, Coffee etc. We had our tiffin and started from there.

As planned earlier, we first visited GOLDEN TEMPLE OF BUDDHA which is near Kushal nagar. We were at golden temple around 1.30 PM. I wasn’t much aware of this temple and enquired about it from friends and driver. I felt very peaceful when we entered into the temple. There was some kind of calmness around the temple which brings solace to you. There were monks praying, reading books inside the main temple where no visitors were allowed to enter. Then we went to other temple which was beside to it. On entering, we saw 3 huge statues in which one of the statue was of Buddha. The sculpture painting in the temple were so acute and colorfull. There was so much of art and wall painting in and around the temple which amazes the people. We sat there for few mins then came out of the temple and took some pictures. As we came out of the temple, there was a small market where in different kinds of clothing accessories, sweaters, jackets etc. were available. Laxmi, Neha and Samina purchased few items from the market and we started our journey to next place which was KAVERI NISARGADHAMA.

It was a 20min drive from golden temple to nisargadhama. We reached kaveri nisargadhama around 2.30 PM. The entry of kaveri nisargadhama had a hanging bridge followed by small jungle where in they had deers, Elepants, rabbits etc. As we started to walk inside, we saw many rest houses made of wood which were around 40feet above ground. People were climbing it with the help of ladder which was attached to it. We found one of the rest house to be empty and started to climb on it. We were thrilled and gals were scared about the wood house getting wrecked or getting broken. Once upon the wood house, we sat their for around 20mins chiling out and took pictures. Then we went further inside and saw deers. They were so beautiful and frightened when they saw us. We were told about elephant rides but were disappointed by not seeing it. We then came out of the nisargadhama and started our journey back to madikeri. DUBARE FOREST CAMP was the next place in our list which is to be visited. Dubare forest camp is famous for the elephant riding, elephant bathing, river rafting etc. We were at Dubare Elephant camp at 5.00 PM. We thought to see elephants, ride on them but it was not permitted. The timings for the elephant riding and bathing were in the morning around 10 AM – 1 PM. So we decided to visit it back while returing back to bengaluru.

Artistic wood piece with different facesRest House

Our next place to visit was RAJA SEAT, which was in the heart of the Madikeri city. Many of my friends and others suggested me to visit raja seat in the evening as the view is awesome, so we planned accordingly. We were at Raja Seat around 6.10PM in the evening. It started drizziling when we got there. I was in love with the place and the weather was perfect. We entered raja seat and had a glimplse of the view from there. I cannot express how i was feeling when i was seeing it. The one thing which came to my mind when i saw it was ” THE WAIT WAS OVER AND IT WAS MUCH BEAUTIFUL THAN WHAT I DREAMT OF IT”. I seriously recommend people to pay a visit to Raja Seat to anyone who is visiting madikeri. It was feast for the visitors eyes, i bet on it. The weather was perfect for the time. Slighlty dirzziling, chilly, clouds all over the sky, greenary all over, zig-zag roads in betwwen the hilly areas and beautiful scenery. I just felt like to stay there forever. But we had to leave as we needed to look out for home stay. We found one broker who saw a home for us and we checked in there. We then came out for diner at ATITHI RESTAURANT. We chit chatted for sometime and ordered food. I wanted to go for walk at night in the drizzle. I always kind off had this interest of walking while it drizzling. We had our diner and headed out to our room to sleep. But the night was not yet over, we didn’t want to sleep so fast so started to play Dumsharaz. Pradeep was not interested in it so he went to sleep. Neha and Laxmi were on one side, samina & Me were on the other. It was such a fun playing that game where laxmi didnt know much hindi flims and took advantage of it :). After an hour or so, we thought its time to sleep but i was in no mood to sleep. Everyone slept but i was awake as i wanted to explore more of the city and thrill myself but couldn’t.

A view from Raja SeatA view from Raja SeatAt dawn in madikeri

I simply layed on bed and waited for the morning in order to have a see the sunrise at madikeri. I got up around 4 AM in the morning and had bath. Then went on the roof to view the scenery and as expected, it was beautiful. I was staring at the sunrise and also listening to the sounds of birds as there was not much noise. Then i woke Pradeep, Neha, Laxmi and Samina to get ready as we need to leave early. We already planned to visit Talacavery, Abbi falls and Dubare elephant camp. We started around 6 AM from madikeri to TALAKAVERI. The road to talacavery was completely ghat section. There were few spots on the way which were so beautiful that would keep you mind refreshed and guessing. It was around 8 in the morning when we reached Talacavery. Talacavery is the place that is generally considered to be the source of the river Kaveri. The view from the entrance of the temple was eye-watching. We went into the temple and prayed for sometime and went to betta (i.e. cliff). We started climbing and saw the vicinity filled completely filled with color green. When we were at top of the cliff, we couldn’t see anything else other than fog. It was all around the place. The place was very cool and everyone was shivering with cold. Ah! it was such a awesome experience to our eyes. The fog cleared for merely half a minute and we could see the forest around. I saw lone house/cottage in the middle of the forest. We stayed there sometime and started moving as planned to visit ABBI FALLS. Once we exited from talacavery, we found a small shop where he was preparing Mirchi and onion pakoda. It was perfect time to have them. It started drizzling again and we were having garam garam mirchi and pakoda. While going to madikeri from talacavery, there is a place “VIEWPOINT MSL 3700” which is simply superb to see. I made the taxi stop and took pictures of the beautiful scenery and enjoyed it for few mintues. Then headed back to Abbi falls.

A view from Talacauvery entranceA view of temple from the cliffA small cottage in the midst of forestView from VIEWPOINT MSL 3700VIEWPOINT MSL 3700

We were at ABBI FALLS at 11.30 in the afternoon. We spent an hour or so at abbi falls seeing the falls and people who were busy taking pictures with their families. It was small waterfall when compared to what i have seen in many other places earlier but the atmosphere was the same. We then started moving towards DUBARE ELEPHANT CAMP. We reached Dubare around 2PM in the afternoon and decided to go for river rafting. Now, this again was one of my things on the adventure list to do. We decided among our friends that we would river raft for 7KMS but the support team didn’t agree as there was not much fast flowing stream present so we had to compromise with shorter distance. River rafting for 7kms would cost you around Rs. 700/- where as the shorter distance costs you Rs.200/-. We were forced to take the shorter one but believe me it was hell lot of fun. The guide on the boat showed us the tricks and amused with his sudden tactics. I would highly recommend anyone who is visiting dubare to river raft for sure. We were drenched completely in the water so we decided to change our clothes and start our journey back.

Abbi FallsRiver Rafting @ Dubare Elephant Camp

As we were anyhow passing via Mysore, we decided to visit BRINDAVAN GARDENS. We got there by 6PM in the evening. We saw the aquarium house first and started moving towards the fountains. We later realised we haven’t got much time left so we had to leave abruplty. We didnt even see 10% of the gardens as we were getting late, so we left in the middle and started our journey back to bengaluru with no stops further. We reached bengaluru around 9.00 – 9.30 PM. And it was around 11 PM when pradeep reached his room. Everyone was so happy about the trip and enjoyed to the fullest. Personally, it was the best trip of my life till now surpassing all. It was much above my expectations. It will be one of the highlighted page of my life, for sure.

@ Aquarium House in Brindavan GardensA view @ Brindavan Gardens

Thanks to Pradeep, Neha, Laxmi and Samina for making the trip so excited and fun-filled 🙂 :).

A night before the release of ‘Cocktail’ hindi movie, We (me, my cousin bro and his friend) decided to watch the movie first day first show. Even one of my friend wanted to watch the movie, so we decided to take her too. I took PTO from work due to other work and ended up in watching COCKTAIL with friends @ Gopalan Arch mall near Mysore road.